The present invention relates to safety hooks and in particular to safety hooks attached to ends of belts or straps permanently attached to transport vehicles, wherein the safety hooks are used for securing occupied wheel chairs or unoccupied wheel chairs, motorcycles, and the like.
Society has exhibited a great willingness to assist handicapped individuals in attaining an independent life style. Because the handicapped often are unable to operate a motor vehicle, an important element to attaining an independent life style is access to public transportation such as busses and the like. A handicapped person often must use a wheel chair, and use of public transportation requires that the wheel chair be safely anchored within the bus.
The Federal Government has established standards for anchoring wheel chairs and the occupants of wheel chairs. These standards include a requirement that the occupant anchoring hardware shall be designed to prevent the anchoring hardware and related parts from becoming disengaged from the vehicle while in service. Straps are generally used to anchor the wheel chairs in the vehicles and lap and shoulder belts are generally used to anchor the occupant of the wheelchair. One end of each strap is generally attached to a specially designed quick release device or hold down on the vehicle floor and an opposite end of each strap includes a hook for engaging the wheel chair. The straps are tensioned to hold the wheel chairs in place and to hold the hooks in engagement with the wheel chair. Unfortunately human error, or during acceleration, braking, or turning, sufficient force may result to cause some of the straps to become loose, and the hooks may disengage from the wheel chair structure.